A Time for Family
by Loki Mischeif-Maker
Summary: A part of both Sirius and Regulus Black knew it might be the last holiday season they shared together and they found a way to make it one they really did spend together.


**Disclaimer:** The Harry Potter universe belongs to JK Rowling. I only play puppeteer from time to time.

**Author's Note:** This fic bears a strong resemblance to another one of mine, Last of the Line. The characterization and one of the things that will make you blink are important parts of that—but its not necessary to read that to understand this one (though I would appreciate it). Anyway, please leave a review on your way out. Cheers! — Loki

"Black." The voice was calculating, cold, and deeper than his own.

"Snape," he answered without looking up, still bent over his homework. He was more focused on getting the theory on Transfiguration out in plain, neat handwriting. When the older boy continued to hover over him like a tenacious storm cloud, however, grey eyes glanced up through black bangs. "Yes?"

His voice was mild, polite, and as cold as the addressee's had been. Severus Snape looked a little taken aback. Generally speaking, Regulus black was not cold. He was civil as a rule, sometimes distant— but distant n the same way Professor Dumbledore was sometimes, his mind elsewhere, rarely with the cold politeness Severus used to make anything sound nasty. "Well, what're you doing here?" Severus asked.

"My Transfiguration homework," the other boy said coolly.

"No, Regulus," Severus answered, exasperated. "What are you doing at _Hogwarts_? You haven't ever stayed for Christmas before, have you?" He had obviously been waiting a full week to ask that question, as it was Christmas eve and Severus had spent the past week between the detentions and the library.

"My excuse was that Dad's on a business trip in Venice, and I prefer a white Christmas," Regulus answered. Though, he lived in London, and with all the traffic and smog he was more likely to end up with a greyish Christmas.

"Your excuse?" Severus asked him quietly.

"So I'm perfectly capable of having an ulterior motive. I've also got homework," Regulus pointed out. "With you hanging over my shoulder like a hungry cat, it's rather hard to get done." When Severus didn't bother to move, he added, "Or would you like me to switch to my brother's charming nickname for you?"

Severus left. Regulus continued down the essay a little further. As someone had decided, for reasons unknown, to drag snow in, spell it not to melt, and build a snowman in the corner (he'd already been throughly chastised by the Head of Slytherin House, though the snowman remained) and someone had put garland all over the common room fire place (which was tolerated largely because it was green) the place almost looked cheerful. His cat, Anna, jumped onto his lap, startling to settle herself into a lying position and leaving a large muddy pawprint on his essay. Halfheartedly, Regulus cursed her, put the paper aside, and grabbed his scarf and gloves.

Anna followed him curiously and silently along the stone passageways as he left the dungeon and headed upstairs. He narrowly avoided Hagrid bringing a tree that had to be ten feet tall into the Great Hall, apologizing to the giant as it wobbled precariously on the edge of Hagrid's control. Anna had already disappeared around the corner, chasing a fairy that had been unwise enough to emerge from its pattern of ornamentation.

Once outside, Regulus changed his mind about what sort of walk he wanted to take. Bone ground bone, fur sprouted, nose elongated— he became shorter as a tail grew. Suddenly smelling dog, Anna pounced, sending her master, now a bright-eyes grey fox, down the steps.

Regulus rolled with her playfully for a little while in the snow, until she got too rambunctious and scratched him in the shoulder. With a yelp, he left off. Anna pounced, he shied, and the cat gave in, tail twitching irritably. She followed Regulus as he wandered around, taking advantage of his increased smell and hearing. They found themselves at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, skirting a group of seventh-year Gryffindors throwing snowballs at each other.

Regulus stopped as suddenly as he saw them, looking from one face to the next. With something of a sigh, the little fox settled down in the snow, watching. It was why he _was_ an animagus, so he could watch. He wanted to make sure nothing would happen to them, though he wasn't entirely sure what he'd do if something did. It was also the only way he could learn things— Sirius didn't let him in on any secrets.

Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were on one team, Lily Evans and James Potter on the other. It was a wonder no one had broken James's glasses yet— Sirius knew from experience that Sirius's snowballs bruised he threw them so hard.

The little fox sat thinking. _This year is my _last_ chance,_ he reminded himself. _My_ last_ chance to talk to him._

A badly aimed snowball flew their way, exploding on Anna and him. The cat hissed in alarm and raced into the Forest. Growling under his breath, Regulus followed. Once among the trees, he changed back into a fifteen year old, scooped up his cat, and tried to calm her. Anna mewed piteously, snuggling into his chest and playing with his scarf.

"It's okay, Ann," he murmured. "It was just snow." He brushed it off himself and his cat, still muttering to her comfortingly, heading out of the treeline.

"What _was_ that?" Sirius was asking no one in particular.

"From the sound of it, a frightened cat," Lily Evans snapped back at him. "You could aim, Sirius."

"You'd rather I hit you?" he asked with a grin.

"Why not?" Lily asked, with an evil grin to rival the Marauder she was speaking to— quite the feat, as Sirius looked and acted rather like a demon. "I'd like an excuse to kill you."

"Lil, it was just a _cat_."

"Actually," Regulus announced as he emerged from the treeline, "it was _my_ cat, Sirius. And she's a right to scratch your eyes out already, seeing as you're my brother."

"Reg?" Sirius asked, turning in surprise.

"How many little brothers d'you have," Regulus demanded sensibly, letting go of Anna so she could make her clearly desired run for the warm, dry Great Hall.

"If I'd had any luck in life, none," Sirius muttered, playing absently with the half-formed snowball in his hands.

Regulus arched an eyebrow. "Why? You couldn't beat up a sister— Mum got mad enough when you went after Bella after all, didn't she" He started to brush black and orange cat hair off his robes nonchalantly, as if the last time he'd heard a word from his brother had been yesterday and not weeks ago.

"Regulus, what in _hell_ are you doing out here without a cloak?" Sirius suddenly demanded.

"It's not _that_ cold out," Regulus countered calmly, waiting to see whether or not Sirius would argue with him.

Sirius did. He kicked snow, scattering it in multiple directions. "What d'you call _this_, then?" he demanded, crossing his arms and glancing at his friends as if for help. "Carribean sand?"

"It's not _that_ cold,"Regulus repeated.

"Someone," Sirius announced dramatically, "please talk some sense into my little brother before he ends up in St. Mugo's with the wizarding equivalent of pneumonia."

"Isn't that just a little over dramatic?" Lily asked him.

"Besides," Remus Lupin added sensibly, wry grin twitching at his lips, "I don't think we can— insanity runs in your family like black hair, doesn't it?"

"My friends are hopeless," Sirius announced. "Reg, get inside and get a coat on before you get sick. Otherwise you'll miss your start-of-term tests and I'll get a howler from our mother for letting you get sick."

"Sirius, I'm fine."

"You are not— why are you playing with a snowball?" Sirius asked. "When did you make it?"

"Sometime around the point at which you were telling me I was going to contract the wizarding equivalent of pneumonia," Regulus answered, throwing it at his brother.

Sirius didn't get his arm up face enough, and it hit him in the face. Wiping the snow out of his hair and eyes, he demanded, "And _what_ was that for?"

Regulus grinned, bending down and scooping up more snow. "I'm your brother," he reminded Sirius. "Do I really need a reason?" He dodged Sirius's retaliating and poorly aimed missel, still compacting another one. "Well, least you've grown up a little— time was you would've tackled me, and me only half your height."

"Who said I quit?" Sirius asked, pouncing on his brother. The two rolled around in the snow for a little while, each trying to pin the other as they hadn't since Sirius was twelve and Regulus ten. Finally, however, Sirius's height and weight won out and they lay in the snow, panting. "You've gotten better at it," Sirius commented, grinning like a maniac.

"Get off my lungs," Regulus replied, but he was grinning right back.

James pounded Sirius with another snowball. "C'mon— I still haven't gotten you properly for telling Lily she looked fat in that sweater!"

"Is that what this is about?" Remus asked mildly. "I think I'll have to change my position on you then, Sirius and join James and Lily. Peter and I only joined you because you were outnumbered."

At the same time, Lily yelled. "I can handle my own, James!"

The snowball fight resumed, Peter sticking to hounding James, Lily, and now Remus, and Regulus being drafted to his brother's side in the fray. The fight finally ended when Filch, the caretaker, appeared with a snow-shovel and gave Sirius detention for hitting _him_ with his next snowball. It was beginning to get dark by then, anyway, and as James complained, while he tried to get all the snow off his glasses in a manner still enabling him to see through them, they couldn't see each other that well. Peter added that it was dinner time, anyway.

"I had thought we were supposed to be adults by now," Lily added as she shoved her boyfriend into a seat at the Gryffindor table. "Or at least five of us are," she added, grinning at Regulus.

James, who had been on a short visit to the Black household to pick Sirius up on several occasions, announced, "Regulus Black was _born_ an adult. Kinda like Moony." He grinned at Remus, who shook his head.

Sirius grinned at his brother. "He may actually be right, you know, Reg. Care to sit with us?"

"I dunno. Its just me and Severus who stayed in Slytherin. . . ." Regulus admitted softly.

"Honestly, Christmas is a time to spend time with your annoying relatives and, in your case, the friends you couldn't separate him from. If Snivellus understands that, he might actually be fit to live. If he doesn't, the fact that he never talks to anyone while he eats suggests that he won't mind being left alone."

"Well. . . ."

Sirius was apparently not about to let Regulus hesitate and yanked him onto the bench beside him. "This is just tonight and tomorrow," he announced. "When term starts I go back to hating you for being a Slytherin and on speaking terms with Snivellus."

"And I return to being annoyed with you for decking the dungeon hallway in pink right before school let out for Christmas," Regulus answered.

"Fair enough."

Fortunately, the lively dinner conversation that James struck up was about Quidditch, and whether or not Gryffindor was going to win again. Regulus argued that Slytherin might overtake them and Remus announced quietly, "Oh, I dunno. The Ravenclaw team's pretty good this year. . . ."

"You're only saying that because your _girlfriend_'s the keeper," James answered. "And as for you, Reg, we've beaten Slytherin every year you've been at this school— why should this one be any different, I ask?"

As the conversation slowly turned to other things, and Regulus and Remus struck up an argument with Lily and Peter about whether or not the words to "Oh Come All Ye Merry Hippogriff's" were better than "Oh Come All Ye Merry Gentlemen," Sirius and James slipped off. They returned as Lily and Remus were laughing over tone-deaf Peter's attempts to explain musical theory to Regulus.

"What the. . . ?"

"Which is more musical, 'Oh Come All Ye Merry Gentlemen' or 'Oh Come All Ye Merry Hippogriffs'?" Lily demanded of him.

"Um. . . . You know, Lil, I've never actually heard the 'Gentlemen' version."

Lily grumbled something and grabbed a quill and a napkin, starting to write it out. Sirius shook his head. "Pity your girlfriend has to teach you Christmas carols."

James shoved him.

After dinner, Remus demanded to know what the two had done when the snuck off. Sirius shrugged. "Oh, you know that statues of the founders in the first floor hall? We . . . erm . . . improved it."

"This I have to see," Remus muttered. Lily, Peter, and Regulus accompanied him, led by Sirius and James to go show off their handiwork. The statue of Godric Gryffindor was wearing a santa hat and a garland like a scarf. Rowena Ravenclaw, sporting a holly wreath with jingle bells hanging from it, also had wedged in her stone hands a candy cane. On Helga Hufflepuff's outstretched arm were perched cardinals and doves as well as her great stone owl, and she was also wearing a santa hat. Salazar Slytherin, decked out with a wreath around his neck, holly wrapped around his arms, and a Santa hat with a jingle bell on the end instead of a white pompom, which Peeves was playing with, had gotten the worst end of the deal. He was singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in a tiny voice that would have better fit one of the suits of armor.

"You've outdone Flitwick in Christmas decorating," Remus announced. "Filch is going to throw a fit." The other three observers voiced their agreement. Filch's cat apparently did, too, as she came streaking past.

"I guess we'd maybe better go upstairs," Sirius commented, and the seventh years began going to their common room. Regulus shook his head and started downstairs. Sirius, however, grabbed his brother and pulled him into a rather awkward one-armed hug.

"Sirius," Regulus grumbled, red-faced.

"No, no," the older Black brother shook his head, trying to catch his brother's eye. "This is probably the only chance I'm going to have to say this, so look at me." Regulus did in surprise, and Sirius continued. "I'm not going to be here to enforce this next year, but I'm the only one that you've gotta let push you around. Don't you _dare_ let anyone else; I don't care if the one trying to is Bella, Cissa, or Mum. I'm not going to try to push you into _that_. You're quiet and I've no doubt they're gonna try. Don't let 'em; you're better than that. Or at least you can be."

Regulus stared at him in shock. "Sirius?"

The older brother grinned and ruffled his hair. "I meant every word. G'night, runt. Merry Christmas."

Sirius started to wander off, leaving his little brother staring after him in some shock. "Sirius?" he asked after him in a strangled voice.

Sirius turned back. "Yeah?"

Regulus swallowed, shook his head, and couldn't think of anything to say. "Merry Christmas to you, too."


End file.
